The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (SRMT) Environment Division, together with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Department of Interior (DOI) have been working together on a Natural Resource Damages Assessment (NRDA). SLETC MOA Natural Resource Damage Assessments are covered under the Superfund law, also known as CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980). The Superfund law specifically requires that certain contaminants in the environment be cleaned up (remediated) to protect human health. This law also provides for restoration of injured natural resources.

The NRDA program is responsible for the identification and restoration of NATURAL RESOURCES that have been injured by the release of hazardous substances. The natural resources damages assessment (NRDA) process involves determining the nature and extent of injury to the public’s natural resources in order to restore them to the state they would have been in prior to contamination. These resource can be injured if toxicants: (1) cause death, destruction, or loss of living organisms; (2) cause biological harm, including altering, reproduction, physiology, development, behavior or creating sickness and disease; or (3) cause resources to become unavailable for human use.

The ultimate goal of NRDA program is to restore local ecosystems to their full function since the survival of Mohawk culture is intimately intertwined with the health of Akwesasne, including the people, future generations, the land, air, water, fish, wildlife, plants, medicines, trees, and the ecosystem as a whole. Click here to see a map of the assessment area SEE MAP

The traditional Natural Resources Damages Assessment Process consists of Five Steps:

1. Pre-Assessment Screen
2. Assessment Plan
3. Actual Assessment
4. Resolution of Claim
5. Restoration

In June of 2000, the SLETC trustees agreed to pursue an expedited injury assessment thus entering into a Cooperative Assessment with the responsible parties. The ultimate objective of the Cooperative Assessment is to negotiate and pursue in good faith the assessment of natural resource injuries, and to identify necessary and appropriate restoration activities for those injured resources.

The St. Lawrence Environment Assessment Work has been divided into 3 components:

1. Ecological
2. Recreational
3. Cultural

In order for assessment and restoration efforts to be successful, we will need the input and knowledge of many people. The NRDA program is currently undergoing a Cultural Assessment project in an attempt to provide a process to determine how and to what extent the culture of the Mohawk people has been affected by injuries to the natural resources of the St. Lawrence River basin that is depended upon.

This project also includes the development of a web site, which will link the resources of traditional knowledge and state of the art technology in keeping with such practices as oral tradition. Our goal for this web site is to preserve Tribal Culture by visiting geographic sites and recording video, audio, and still photos of the natural resources and Tribal Elders who describe the site in both English and Mohawk languages. The web page will be shared with other First Nations communities, schools, museums, etc.